Born in Moscow in 1974, she started playing the piano at the age of six and at twelve made her first attempt at composition. After graduating from the Gnessin Music College where she majored in musicology and piano, she entered the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow to study composition with Yuri Vorontsov.
In 1999 she moved to London to complete her M.Mus degree with Julian Anderson at the Royal College of Music. She also studied at the Centre Acanthes (France) with Sofia Gubaidulina. From September 2001, she has been working towards her Doctorate at the Royal Academy of Music (London) supervised by Simon Bainbridge and Gerard McBurney.
She has written compositions in diverse genres, including orchestral and choral works, operas, chamber ensembles and solo works, and has received commissions and performances from international ensembles and organisations such as the Almeida Opera Festival in London, The Britten and Strauss Festival in Aldeburgh, Dartington Summer Festival, Gaudeamus New Music Week and the Moscow Autumn Festival. Some of her works have been commercially recorded on the Black Box Label in Britain and Universal Music in Russia, and some broadcast on bbc Radio 3, bbc World Service, Radio Echo of Moscow and Dutch Radio.
In 2002 Elena was appointed the Jerwood Composer in Association with the Almeida Theatre in London. She was commissioned to compose two chamber operas in collaboration with the poet Glyn Maxwell. These commissions – Ariadne and The Girl of Sand – were staged at the Almeida Opera Festival in 2002 and 2003. Ariadne was also performed at the festivals in Aldeburgh and Moscow and at the Royal Academy of Music and has received a Prince Rainier Prize.
Elena Langer is currently working on The Umbrella, a chamber opera (in collaboration with the writer Lavinia Greenlaw), commissioned by the Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich) and the Genesis Foundation.

Selected works: Reflection for piano or harpsichord (1994, rev. 1998), Transformations for violin and piano (1996, rev. 1998), Four Pieces for mezzo-soprano and piano ( 1996), Nocturne for two guitars (1998),
The Re-turn for oboe, violin, cello and harpsichord (1998, rev. 1999), Green Ray for symphony orchestra (1999), On Two Shores for large ensemble (2002), Ariadne, chamber opera for soprano, string trio and oboe (2002), The Girl of Sand for soloists, chorus and ensemble (2003), In the Dark for eight instruments (2003), Late Autumn Lullaby I for piano (2004), Late Autumn Lullaby II for soprano and piano (2004), Das Liedchen Klingen for piano quartet (2005), Alkonost for clarinet, cello and piano (2005).

In the Dark was commissioned by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble. It was premiered at the Gaudeamus New Music Week in Amsterdam in 2003.
The work was inspired by my experience of collaborating with Orly Orbach, a young visual artist from London. She creates her rather spooky figures and characters using quite unusual textures like burnt paper or pieces of dough. Her works are mostly done in dark colours, yet they are very expressive within their limited spectral range.
I tried to do the same but in sound. All the instruments of the ensemble are interpreted as one homogeneous unit, the music is quite static and there is no specific melodic development of the material. The piece is about various shades of one colour reflected in different timbres and sonorities.

Elena Langer